All 22 commissioned organisations have now uploaded their content and it’s available for you to use, re-use and re-purpose. We held a project conference at the end of April and explored how the content can be used not only in the vocational areas for which they were intended but also used for cross-cutting ‘employability’ areas such as Health & Safety, communication skills, problem solving and Maths and English. Watch this space for more on this!

Anthony Beal's insight:

All the materials are listed by the organisation that created them on the right of the screen.

My time as a student in Further Education (FE) was one of a handful of life changing experiences that I have been privileged to have. Prior to studying a vocational subject at a College of Further Education I had hated school, there was no space at school for me to pursue the subjects I was really passionate about and the only teachers which seemed to value the skills I had were those who lead the extra curricular activities I took part in. The overriding message at school was; "The only successful end to your school career is good A level grades and a place at University".Wel

Following the successful completion of phase one of our Mobile Learning Guide update, we have again been delighted by the response from the community to our call for institutions to be involved with showcasing Mobile Learning in Inclusive Practice.

We have now selected 14 proposals to go forward. As with phase one, these institutions will be producing a video case study showcasing the use of apps to support students with learning or physical difficulties, spanning a range of ideas including such uses as making use of closed captioning and subtitles, to creating customised communication systems, to using apps as part of a sensory art session.

Do you have a brilliant idea that could improve education or research? Elevator is Jisc’s open innovation platform. It supports the exploration of new ideas that use technology to enhance education, research and student life in higher education, further education and skills. If you have an idea that you want to explore then you can submit it to one of the open or upcoming elevators.

The "Twister" template allows you to create fictional "status updates" that can then be printed off for display purposes. Students could be asked

What are the most important people in this topic?What was their most important moment within the topic?What would their comment be about it?What particular keywords would they use within their comment?What hashtag could they maybe use at the end of the message?What nickname did they have / could we invent to use as their username?

The role of UK higher education (HE), further education (FE) and skills sectors in developing student employability is clear. Technology can be an enabler to the development and communication of employability skills, but are organisations and employers making best use of it?

Anthony Beal's insight:

Jisc webinar from April 2015 - resources include: the slides and a recording of the webinar.

Includes information on case studies, emerging themes to support practice and ideas for institutions to enhance practices

...we should be aiming to involve and actively engage with students in the lecture; to make our teaching connect with, and challenge, as many as possible in that room. PowerPoint isn’t a barrier to doing this. If we exploit it correctly, it breaks down the barriers. We shouldn’t blame the technology for deficiencies that are wholly human.

These ‘Enhancing the digital student experience’ cards are designed to support conversations about students’ digital experience.

As someone who works with students and/or who enables digital change, you know that conversations are critical to making things happen. The cards can provide a prompt to start a conversation, or a tangible reminder you can leave behind.

From the 2015 exam season, Ofqual requires awarding bodies to offer digital copies of their exam papers for print-disabled learners.

by @alistairm

Anthony Beal's insight:

Plenty of practical advice from Alistair on how you "go about making ‘digital’ the normal way of learning..." "Technology enhanced learning is vital for supporting accessibility and inclusion, but it is also good for all learners..."

Myerscough College, a land-based further and higher education college in the north west, is one of the approximately 160 further education colleges in England to take additional connections to Jisc’s Janet network. Ian Brown, director of IT and MIS at the college, talks to us about why they’ve taken an extra four connections.

At the 4th Annual Efficiency in Higher Education conference we asked our speakers to talk about the challenges of achieving greater efficiency in higher education. Here is Martin Hamilton, a futurist at Jisc, talks about the value of sharing assets.

Superfast internet access has come to be such a major part of our everyday lives that network connectivity is often seen as a given 'right', but as with all technologies it is not infallible, and things can and do go wrong.

If your internet goes down at home chances are you'll be slightly inconvenienced while you wait for the problem to be put right. Not such a big deal if you're browsing for pleasure, but say you need to use the internet for work or study, a few hours offline can seriously hamper your output.

Now think about what would happen if you lost connectivity in your college. Potentially hundreds of students and teachers would be unable to access the online resources and services they need. Bad enough if this were to transpire during teaching or study time; if a loss of connectivity were to happen during an exam, the outcome would be positively disastrous...

Sharing your scoops to your social media accounts is a must to distribute your curated content. Not only will it drive traffic and leads through your content, but it will help show your expertise with your followers.

Integrating your curated content to your website or blog will allow you to increase your website visitors’ engagement, boost SEO and acquire new visitors. By redirecting your social media traffic to your website, Scoop.it will also help you generate more qualified traffic and leads from your curation work.

Distributing your curated content through a newsletter is a great way to nurture and engage your email subscribers will developing your traffic and visibility.
Creating engaging newsletters with your curated content is really easy.